1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to systems and methods for performing trades or exchanges. In particular, the present invention relates to a system and method for the efficient exchange and pricing of services, digital goods, and intangible works.
2. Description of the Background Art
With the development of the personal computer and the Internet, there are now more ways than ever to distribute and sell intangible works. Intangible works can be any digital work such as digital files that include music, audio books, movies and video content, software applications and programs, or any information. Moreover, there are many more individuals with computers and access to the Internet that can create, produce, distribute and sell intangible works. For example, there has been a dramatic rise in the number and types of intangible goods and services that are exchanged. Such intangible goods are oftentimes exchanged without charge because there is not a mechanism to fairly and adequately compensate the creators or owners of digital content for their efforts. While there have been some attempts in the prior art to solve this problem, they have not been successful.
There currently exist a variety of systems for exchanging goods and services for other goods and services or even money or other types of credits. For example, credit card transactions are well known. Also, with the development of the Internet commerce, there are a variety of services such as PayPal® that will arrange for the payment of goods and services. There has also been a change in how banking is conducted, with the major banks offering electronic payment via the Internet for many goods and services. However, all of these conventional methods require some affiliation or relationship to a bank or financial institution that converts the price to a currency and handles the exchange. Furthermore, none of the existing systems provides a model for pricing intangible works to account for inherent characteristics that allows simultaneous use and low cost of production. While there are currently some bartering systems that have become electronic, they typically involve a party-to-party transaction with no underlying system to price items and exchange credits electronically. Thus, there is a need for a system and methods for the exchange of intangible goods and services.
Yet another problem with existing systems is the potential for fraud and identity theft. With a small amount of information, a fraudulent user can perform any variety of transactions. In transactions involving digital goods, the risks of fraud are even greater because once the intangible goods have been sent there is typically little recourse for the seller or owner. Thus, buyers have become reluctant to provide personal information to sellers that could in turn be fraudulently used. Thus, there is also a need for a system for a blind method for registering and validating a single identifier for a user such as an email address.
Therefore, what is needed is a system and methods for implementing an exchange system for intangible goods that overcomes the limitations found in the prior art.